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In 1999, Times magazine included Keynes in their list of the 100 most important and influential people of the 20th century, stating that, “His radical idea that governments should spend money they don’t have may have saved capitalism. ” In addition to being an economist, Keynes was also a civil servant, a director of the Bank of England, a patron of the arts and an art collector, a part of the Bloomberg Group of intellectuals, an advisor to several charitable trusts, a writer, a philosopher, a private investor, and a farmer.

John Maynard Keynes, History and Background John Maynard Keynes was a British economist whose ideas have affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics, as well as the economic leslies of governments. He greatly refined earlier work on the causes of business cycles, and advocated the use of fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of economic recessions and depressions. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, as well as its various offshoots.

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In the 1 9305, Keynes came up with a revolution in economic thinking, overturning the older ideas of neoclassical economics that held that free markets would in the short to medium term automatically provide full employment, as long as workers were flexible in their wage demands. Keynes instead argued that aggregate demand determined the overall level of economic activity, and that inadequate aggregate demand could lead to prolonged periods of high unemployment. Following the outbreak of World War II, Kennedy’s ideas concerning economic policy were adopted by leading Western economies.

During the 1 9505 and asses, the success of Keynesian economics resulted in almost all capitalist governments adopting its policy recommendations. In the asses, Keynes influenced result partly because of problems that began to afflict the Anglo- American economies from the start of the decade, and partly because of retinues from Milton Friedman and other economists who were pessimistic about the ability of governments to regulate the business cycle with fiscal policy. However, the global financial crisis in 2007 caused a resurgence in Keynesian thought.

Keynesian economics provided the theoretical underpinning for economic policies undertaken in response to the crisis by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama of the United States, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Kevin Rude of Australia, and other global leaders. John Maynard Keynes Education John Maynard Keynes was born on June 5, 1883 in Cambridge, Camaraderie, England, to an upper-middle-class family. His father John Enviable Keynes was an economist and a lecturer in moral sciences at the University of Cambridge and his mother Florence Dad Keynes a local social reformer.

Keynes was the first born, and was followed by two more children Margaret Enviable Keynes in 1 885 and Geoffrey Keynes in 1887. Kennedy’s parents were loving and attentive, they remained in the same house throughout their lives, where the children were always welcome to return. Keynes would receive considerable support from his father, such as expert coaching to help him pass his scholarship exams and financial help both as a young man and when he was nearly wiped out at the onset of Great Depression in 1929. Kennedy’s mother made her children’s interests her own.

Keynes had his early education at home and in kindergarten. He attended the Peers School Kindergarten in 1890. Teachers described Keynes as brilliant, but on occasion, careless and lacking in determination. His health was often poor during this period, leading to several long absences. Keynes won a scholarship to Ton in 1 897, where he displayed talent in a wide range of objects, particularly mathematics, classics and history. At Ton, Keynes experienced the first “love of his life” in Dan Macmillan, older brother of the future Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Despite his middle-class background, Keynes mixed easily with upper-class group. In 1902 Keynes left Ton for King’s College, Cambridge after receiving a scholarship for this also to study mathematics. Keynes was an active member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostles society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students. Like many members, Keynes retained a bond to the club after graduating and intentioned to attend occasional meetings throughout his life.

Before leaving Cambridge, Keynes became the President of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. In May 1904 he received a first class B. A. In mathematics. Keynes continued to involve himself with the university over the next two years. He took part in debates; further studied philosophy and attended economics lectures informally as a graduate student. He also studied for his 1905 Tripod and 1 906 Civil Service exams. The economist Harry Johnson wrote that the optimism imparted by Kennedy’s early life is important to understanding his eater thinking.

Keynes was always confident he could find a solution to whatever problem he caught his attention, and retained a lasting faith in the ability of government officials to do well. Kennedy’s optimism was also cultural, in two senses; he was one of the last generation raised by an empire still at the height of its power, in its own eyes and by much of the world, seen as preeminent in both power and benevolence. Keynes was also one Of the last generations who felt entitled to govern by culture, rather than by expertise.

According to Kidneys, the sense of cultural unity current in Britain room the 1 9th century to the end of World War I provided a framework with which the well-educated could set various ways of knowledge in relation to each other and to life, enabling them to confidently draw from different fields when addressing practical problems. John Maynard Keynes Career Kennedy’s expertise during the First World War was called upon by the British Government. While he did not formally re-join the civil service in 1914, Keynes traveled to London at the government’s request a few days before hostilities started.

Bankers had been pushing for the suspension of specie payments; he convertibility of bank notes into gold, but with Kennedy’s help persuaded that this would be a bad idea, as it would hurt the future reputation of the city if payments were suspended before absolutely necessary. In January 1 91 5 Keynes took up an official government position at the Treasury. Among his responsibilities were the design of terms of credit between Britain and its continental allies during the war, and the acquisition of scarce currencies.

Kennedy’s nerve and mastery became legendary because of his performance of these duties, as in the case where he managed to assemble with difficulty ND a small supply of Spanish pesetas. The secretary of the Treasury was delighted to hear Keynes had amassed enough to provide a temporary solution for the British Government. But Keynes did not hand the pesetas over, choosing instead to sell them all to break the market; his boldness paid off, as pesetas then became much less scarce and expensive.

In the 191 7 King’s Birthday Honors, Keynes was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath for his wartime work and his success led to the appointment that would have a huge effect on Kennedy’s life and career; Keynes was appointed uncial representative for the Treasury to the 191 9 Versailles peace conference. He was also appointed Officer of the Belgian Order of Leopold. Keynes had completed his book “A Treatise on Probability’ before the war, but published it in 1921.

Keynes developed the first upper-lower probabilistic interval approach to probability in chapters 15 and 17 of this book, as well as having developed the first decision weight approach with his conventional coefficient of risk and weight, in chapter 26. In addition to his academic work, the asses saw Keynes active as a journalist selling his work internationally ND working in London as a financial consultant. In 1924 Keynes wrote an obituary for his former tutor Alfred Marshall which Schumacher called “the most brilliant life of a man of science have ever read. In 1922 Keynes continued to advocate reduction of German reparations with A Revision of the Treaty. He attacked the post-World War I deflation policies with A Tract on Monetary Reform in 1923, a trenchant argument that countries should target stability of domestic prices, avoiding deflation even at the cost of allowing their currency to depreciate. Britain suffered from high unemployment wrought most Of the 1920* leading Keynes to recommend the depreciation Of sterling to boost jobs by making British exports more affordable.

From 1924 he was also advocating a fiscal response, where the government could create jobs by spending on public works. During the asses Kennedy’s views had only limited effect on policy makers and mainstream academic opinion. Keynes advised it was no longer a net benefit for countries such as Britain to participate in the gold standard, as it ran counter to the need for domestic policy autonomy. It could force countries to pursue deflationary policies at exactly the time when expansionary measures were called for to address rising unemployment.

The Treasury and Bank of England were still in favor of the gold standard and in 1925 they were able to convince the then Chancellor Winston Churchill to re-establish it, which had a depressing effect on British industry. Keynes responded by writing The Economic Consequences of Mr.. Churchill and continued to argue against the gold standard until Britain finally abandoned it in 1931. Conclusion John Maynard Keynes was a great economist, he establish great things during his life. He died April 21, 1946 at the age of 62. He was remembered with the work he had accomplished and the way he had changed lives for everyone.

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